Get drunk on music – whether it’s classical, romantic or jazzy – and grasp without restraint the opportunity that is offering you the 20th anniversary edition of the Festival Mozart!

Once again, the Festival brings together a multitude of renowned musicians to serve the music together. All of them have contributed to the success of the Festival during the last 20 years: Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Hagaï Shaham, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, Daniel Blumenthal, Pascal Moraguès, Michel Lethiec, Alexander Dmitriev, Marc Grauwels ... to name just a few of them. Along with some promising young musicians – as part of the Young Artists Program – they invite you for a rich and varied musical event.

During this anniversary edition of the Festival, the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo will receive a special place, with the theme concerts "1815", "Empereur" and "Joies & Brillance". A great opportunity, we thought, to make you discover some lesser known - wrongly! - musical gems. Mozart’s repertoire naturally continues to shine in the heart of the Festival! But you’ll find also a lot of other music on the program. Mozart would have loved to share the bill with Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann and Tchaikovsky. We brought them together, for Mozart’s and your pleasure... and ours!

Besides the Church of St. Paul of Waterloo, the heart of the Mozart Festival, new prestigious places welcome our concerts this year: Flagey and the Château d'Argenteuil. It is in the latter that the Festival will initiate the festivities by offering a "twenty hands for twenty years" of piano follies!

During the two previous editions of the Festival, music and visual arts found each other with the presence of painter Marie Chimkovitch. This collaboration continues and is expanded with another one: painter Mélody Boulaert accepted the challenge to bring her artistic tribute to the music. The locally created paintings, drawings and collages can be discovered before and after the concerts or during the breaks. Stringed instrument maker Fabien Gram is also back with us. He invites you to discover his latest instruments, but also to hear them on stage under the fingers of musicians of the festival.

New this year is the presence of a composer in residence: our guest is Nicolas Bacri. Through his music, he will enter into dialogue with Mozart, including the creation of a new work! And last but not least, the children will also be cosseted thanks to the support of the Cultural Centre of Waterloo. This allows us to organize 4 concerts for them in St. Paul's Church, and another one at the St. Johns International School. As for the adults, in addition to concert places already mentioned above, they will surely enjoy the charming église Saint-Pierre in Glabais, and the majestic hall of the Sint-Jans Berchmans College in Brussels.

20 years ago Jerrold Rubenstein, Dalia Ouziel and Vladimir Mendelssohn created the Mozart Festival. Their example is still a source of inspiration. We are therefore delighted that they will join us on this anniversary edition.

Daniel Rubenstein, Artistic Director

Festival Mozart, Ambassy of Israel